There's an interesting post about the 2007 James Beard Awards over at Serious Eats, specifically about the conspicuous lack of non-white people in attendance. Given that the restaurant industry on virtually every level pretty much lives and dies by the the labor of immigrants and people of color, it does seem at least noteworthy that the crowd at such an event skews so Caucasian. Ed Levine described the event thusly: "It was like being at a hockey game, only everyone was wearing tuxes."
It seems this self-segregation-- some might say racism-- isn't going unnoticed, but what's really being done? If Bourdain's blog post from a few weeks back tells us anything, it's that the Beard Foundation isn't doing a whole lot to help matters, and underrepresentation of non-white people in the food world is certainly not exclusive to them.
I live in one of the most racially diverse cities in America, but whenever I go anywhere that isn't fast-food, the racial makeup certainly doesn't match the demographics of the area. Socioeconomics certainly plays a role, but that isn't the whole story. Perhaps it's time to start thinking a bit about what other forces are at work, especially in an industry where people of color perform the bulk of the work for a tiny slice of the proverbial pie. It's not my intent to get too political here, but the situation certainly is hard to ignore, especially when the photographic evidence is so teling.
